March 27, 2025 – The Governor Richard J. Oglesby Mansion and Museum, located at 421 West William Street, will host its first open house of the 2025 season on Sunday, March 30, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. A donation of $5 per adult and $2 per child is requested. Volunteers, including current and former board members, will provide tours, and photography inside the home is encouraged.
“This will be the premier open house for our 2025 season,” said Dave Davis, board president.
The mansion, located in Decatur’s historic Millikin Heights neighborhood, is dedicated to educating visitors about Governor Richard J. Oglesby’s legacy. It is the only museum solely dedicated to his life and legacy. The mansion is owned by the Macon County Conservation District, while the Governor Oglesby Mansion, Inc. board maintains its contents.
The March 30 event will highlight the mansion’s dining room, which features an original fireplace, a petticoat mirror table, a cut glass punch bowl given to Governor Oglesby by his staff at Camp Lincoln in 1888, and wallpaper replicated from original samples found in the mid-1970s.
“Tourists will be able to see many of the original features of the home as they were when the Governor and his family lived in it. We will have the dining room table set with china donated to the mansion by Nany Fritz. The china belonged to her great-grandmother and is period appropriate for the Governor’s mansion. It is Royal Worcester china, and the table is set for 12 dinner guests. We wanted our tourists to see the china and silver set on the dining room table for a formal dinner. It is very breathtaking,” said tours chairman, Carol Pelz.
The mansion will host open houses on the last Sunday of each month through November. Additional information can be found on the mansion’s Facebook page or at www.oglesbymansion.org.
